If you're referring to the North American natives, Aristolochia tomentosa and A. macrophylla, their flowers have no smell at all. The tropical types may have some odor, but our Florida forum members have never mentioned bad smells from their A. giganteas and such, so I doubt they have any bad smell either - maybe some of them will see this and give you an answer. Sherry

I've always wondered about thhe smell/scent too. I gather they are pollinated by flies and usually things that are pollinated by flies have an ordor of rotting meat. I've never managed to find one in bloom so haven't been able to check it out myself. But they are also traditional 'porch vines' so that would seem to indicate that the smell, if there is a bad one, can't be very strong or last very long. So I'm also interested in hearing people's experience with them...

You seem to be a victim of success. The question is do you want pretty plants or happy caterpillars. I don't think you can have both. I agree that the cats can kill a plant by eating all it's leaves. Passionflower seems to adapt pretty well by underground roots and having baby vines springing up all over the place. I also grow a couple different dutchman's pipes and the fimbriata is especially prone to being killed off by cats. Hard to replace it without going to a special nursery hours away and spending boocoo $'s. I do it when I feel like it. Perhaps you should grow bigger plants that can't be killed off. Senna's come in tree form and the sulfurs are beautiful to watch around them all day. Giant swallowtail like citrus as well as Hercules club and prickly ash. I grow all of these and they are never decimated. I also have passionflowers and milkweed eaten to nothing regularly and just bought some more milkweed from a native nursery. It's my small price for butterflies around all day. Whoops gotta go. Giant ST just buzzed by. Denise

Birthwort (A. baetica, note spelling if you are going to search) is fairly rare here, but very common in Spain. This one, though technically a small vine (10ft) of the Aristolochia clan, is not usually called Pipevine, although with common names one can not be wrong. The other Birthwort mentioned, A. clematatis, can hardly be called Pipevine since it only grows chest high. I agree, the butterfly forum would likely have much more info on all the Aristolochias. (Supposedly baetica is one of the all time favorite foods of the Pipevine Butterfly. Elegans is also very much sought after by these insects. What a charge they must get from the sap!) Virginia Snakeroot is also an Aristolochia, but it too rarely gets far off the ground and is almost never called Pipevine. It too is hardy to at least zone 5. The reason for my guessing about the seedz is: the commonest ones in the trade are several tropical varieties (elegans and gigantea, and druior (=macrophylla), the only big vine Aristolochia hardy to the temperate north.) 2)the tropical ones have seedz about the size of tomato seedz, but durior, which doesn't make too many seedz, has 200 seedz tucked into a capsule about an inch long and as thick as a drinking straw. They are as small as tobacco seedz. The best way to ID your seedz would be to find out the size of the plant they came from and where it grew. If the thing was a 20ft vine, that eliminates the Birthworts (there are many on that side of the family), and Snakeroot. If the plant was in FL, both gigantea and elegans are quite common down there. Those seedz are plentiful and don't germinate until late summer for me too. I can get a photo of some seedz and the seedz capsules if you think that will help you Carol.